found worthy the keenest interest and most earnest study of the ablest and most intellectual minister.

As has been suggested in my preliminary remarks the minister's study of music ought to be preeminently practical. While the impulse to consider it from an artistic standpoint will be spontaneous and strong, as a minister charged with the responsibility of comforting and inspiring the souls in his congregation and of helping them in their devotions, it is music as an applied art that should appeal to him most effectively, for it is helpfulness, not abstract ideals, that is the final criterion of success. Hymns, and the tunes that give them the needed wings, are means to definite ends and are to be judged and valued in so far as they realize these desired ends. The more clearly these ends are formulated, the more easily can the means be judged. Forgetting the purpose in view leads to abstract and impracticable ideals and standards which, however admirable and attractive in themselves, culminate in an utter subversion of the ends that after all are so much more important.

But I hear some of you cry with a gasp, "Who is sufficient unto these things?" Am I laying burdens of preparation on you beyond the endurance of weak flesh? What man has done, man can do. There are scattered over the land, here and there, many successful pastors who have acquired all I have suggested and very much more. My task has been to lead you up to "Mount Nebo's lonely height," and to give you a glimpse of the musical Land of Promise where the milk and honey of successful church work flow. It is for you to enter in and to possess it all if you will, or to share it with the Philistines of worldly praise, indifference or sloth, who will trouble you grievously, even as they did the Israelites of old.

It may seem to many that such a program of musical education as has been outlined above is practically impossible. There is an erroneous impression abroad that in order to understand music one must have peculiar gifts. Indeed so profound is this impression that the corollary has been drawn that any one who understands music must be a peculiar person set apart from his kind. While it is true that for the highest executive ability in music, and still more for creative work, peculiar talents are needed, just as such extraordinary talents are needed for writing the highest type of poetry, for producing the greatest architectural designs, or in utilizing the strategic possibilities of an army, it is also true that any one with ordinary intelligence can learn the rudiments of music and understand at least the mechanical elements of the art.

For a minister to ignore the subject of music because he has no talent for it, is as foolish as it would be for him to refuse to study Greek or Hebrew, or even the use of good current English, because he has no talent for language such as had Poe or Lanier or Stevenson, those wizards with magical power over the English language. He might as well refuse to write because he could not produce such calligraphic examples as ornament the studies of our writing teachers in business colleges.

It may be true in some cases, where the capacity for detecting differences in pitch is wanting, that he may not be able to learn to sing by note, or even to learn a tune by rote; but even in such extreme cases, by the application of mere intelligence, such as would be applied to any other subject, he can secure all needed knowledge preparing him to give direction and oversight to the musical work of his church. It ought to be made a mark

of inferiority, a thing of discredit to any minister who aspires to the management of the life of a Christian church, that he should not have this rudimental knowledge of notation and a fairly clear idea of the uses and applications of music in his work.

I do not demand a technical education in a difficult course, requiring long continued study leading to expert knowledge and skill. What is wanted is an absorption of musical facts, an apprehension of musical principles and a purposeful study of the applications of music to church work. There is no need of a great outlay of time and effort, but there are required the open mind and the observant ear, so that with here a little, and there a little, the minister is educating himself in music and preparing himself to apply it practically. If his education as a child and youth has been what it ought to have been, by his reading, by his hearing of music, by his amateurish and halting efforts at playing or singing, but above all by the careful observation of the methods and plans by which the results may be achieved that one can expect from music, the preparation will be obtained for an intelligent oversight of the music of the church.

That this can be done is proved by the example of Moody. He was no musician. Whether he had a particle of the artistic temperament I greatly doubt. But he knew the power of music in securing immediate practical results, and, what is even more important, he knew what sort of music would produce the results he wanted. He was one of the best judges of the practical, available value of a new Gospel song to be found in his day and generation, for his practical judgment was not distracted by artistic considerations.

They tell a characteristic story of him at Northfield

that ought to give heart to the minister who is least gifted in music. He called for the Long Meter Doxology at one of their school meetings. The organist, who was something of a wag, played Yankee Doodle in a very slow and sedate way instead. Moody broke out impulsively, "I don't know why it is, but dear Old Hundredth grows sweeter every time I hear it!" The assembly laughed and so did Moody when some one whispered the facts to him. If a man so musically ignorant as that could transform the religious life of two nations, largely by the use of simple Gospel songs, why should any of us despair of achieving at least a measure of success?

VI

A STUDY IN CHURCH HYMNALS

OST ministers know their Bible in a vital, concrete way all too little, but they know their

church hymnals very much less. They run through them occasionally to find a set of hymns that will suit their sermons and so pick up a little miscellaneous knowledge, but a careful, organized study of the hymnals is rare among them. Yet the hymnal and its tunes are important factors in every public service.

The faith of most ministers in the editors of their particular church hymnal is greater than their faith in the divine inspiration of the Bible. If a certain tune is given to a particular hymn, there is no question of fitness raised, it is in the hymnal and therefore it must be right. Yet many of our hymnals, even those that are extremely pretentious, are compiled by amateurs, who have little genuine musical training, or by musicians who have training of a high order, but no practical experience in the varying resources of different congregations.

A hymnal made by an expert hymnologist and an equally expert musician is not necessarily a good one for actual use. In both cases, expertness depends upon a microscopic study of details, a knowledge of obscure facts and considerations, and a taste that is nice in its discrimination. This leads to the mental microscopic habit, an emphasis upon details out of all proportion to their importance. In almost every line of human ac